People Australia

John Gardner (c.1820–?) was born in about 1820 in Coventry, England, and was an only child. Like many others in this industrial town he was employed in the weaving trade. In October 1833, at age thirteen, he was apprenticed to weaver Charles Atkins, with the apprenticeship paid for by the parish.[1] In May the next year he absconded from his master and was sentenced to jail for one month.[2] In January 1835 he was again before the court, this time for stealing a loaf of bread, and was sentenced to a private whipping plus three months imprisonment.[3] Ten months later in November he was arrested for entering the property of Thomas Ford and stealing a coat, waistcoat, and other articles.[4]

By this time Gardner was sixteen, and his mother was widowed.[5] It was reported that he belonged to a gang known as the ‘forty thieves’.[6] His trial, held in January 1836, saw him sentenced to seven years transportation – a standard sentence for repeat offenders.[7] A petition on behalf of his mother was lodged. It explained that she had been unable to procure defence counsel because of extreme poverty. The petition also asserted that her son did not leave home until after the pawnbroker said the stolen articles were pledged, and that there were three other youths living nearby with the same name.[8] The petition was denied, with the response sent after Gardner left England.[9]

On 8 April 1836, after three months in jail, Gardner was transferred to the prison hulk Justitia, moored at Woolwich, where he spent five months.[10]Convict William Jones (alias Day) wrote of his experience aboard this hulk: ‘we were employed some days at emptying barges ... other times we would be moving gun carriages or weeding the long lanes between the mounted guns.’[11] After departing Deptford on 17 September 1836 with forty-three guards, the John (4) collected one hundred prisoners at Woolwich – including Gardner – and another 160 at Sheerness.[12] The original medical log from the John (4) was lost at sea, with surgeon-general Charles Inches providing a summary on his return to England. It was reported that ‘of the 50 received from the “Justitia” a considerable proportion were unhealthy’. There were five deaths onboard, with four received from the Justitia.[13] Two convicts later died in hospital.[14]

Gardner was five feet three inches tall, with a dark, ruddy, and freckled complexion, brown hair, and blue eyes. He had extensive tattoos: ‘crucifix on breast, man with 2 flags on upper, hope, anchor, man, flag, Adam and Eve, and tree lower right arm, mermaid, legs of a man, and crown on upper, brig heart, and darts JG JGAS, bugle and ship, JG, three dots lower arm, JJG back of left hand, ring on middle and third fingers of same.’[15] On arrival in New South Wales he was assigned to the Australian Agricultural Company (AAC) as an agricultural labourer and sent to Port Stephens.[16] The AAC was the largest private landholder in the colony, having been granted one million acres in 1824. Established by an Act of Parliament and Royal Charter, its initial purpose was to raise sheep for the English wool market. A large part of its labour force came from assigned convicts.[17] In 1837 the AAC employed 464 agricultural convict labourers; by 1843 this number had dwindled to 131.[18] These numbers reflect the end of convict transportation to NSW.[19]

On 19 June 1840 Gardner absconded from the AAC; he was apprehended in late September.[20] In January 1842 he was arrested by police magistrate Thomas Cook for improper conduct and sentenced to two months on the treadmill at the punishment station in Sydney.[21] After earning his freedom on 22 September 1843, Gardner continued to be on the wrong side of the law.[22] Cook committed him for burglary and robbery in October 1843. He was discharged on his own recognisance and ordered to stand trial on 18 March 1844 in the District Circuit Court, where he was dismissed.[23] On 9 April 1844 he was charged with idle and disorderly conduct by Cook, sentenced to six months hard labour in Newcastle and discharged on 3 October 1844.[24]

After this time Gardner disappears from the records, perhaps having either removed himself from Cook’s authority or keeping himself out of trouble. When and where he died is unknown.

[1] John Gardner apprenticed 16 October 1833 to Master Charles Atkins, Weaver, St Michael (Coventry), Warwickshire Parish Apprentice Database, Coventry Family History Society (index only; information supplied by Ella Johnson, Coventry Family History Society [email], 14 May 2024, original held by the author); Barbara Robinson & Paul Salisbury, A Guide to the Entries from Coventry Apprentice Enrolments 1781-1975, Issue 2, Coventry Family History Society, Coventry, 2021, page 5, https://www.covfhs.org/cfhs/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Apprentices-issue-2.pdf, accessed 2 June 2024. Bradley Beaven, ‘Custom, Culture and Conflict: A Study of the Coventry Ribbon Trade in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century’, Midland History 15, no. 1 (1990):83-99.

[2] ‘Coventry Police Office’, Coventry Herald, 23 May 1834, 4.

[3] ‘Coventry Herald, General Quarter Sessions’, Coventry Herald, 2 January 1835, 4; Quarter session register entry for John Gardner, 5 January 1835, Warwickshire, Coventry City Sessions, The National Archives (UK), HO 27/50, p 400, in England & Wales, Criminal Registers, 1791-1892, Ancestry.com, accessed 25 May 2024; ‘Law intelligence’, Coventry Herald, 9 January 1835, 2,

[4] ‘Coventry Police Office’, Coventry Herald, 27 November 1835, 4.

[5] Petition of Maria Gardener [Gardner] (presented by W. Williams Esq MP), 1836, Home Office: Criminal Petitions: Series I, The National Archives (UK), HO17/120, Item XW30, in England & Wales, Crime, Prisons & Punishment,

1770-1935, Findmypast.com, accessed 2 May 2024.

[6] Coventry Herald, 8 January 1836, np, photocopy of partial news clipping held by author.

[7] Quarter session register entry for John Gardner, 4 January 1836, Warwickshire, Coventry City Sessions, The National Archives (UK), HO 27/52, page 396, in England & Wales, Criminal Registers, 1791-1892, Ancestry.com, accessed 25 May 2024.

[8] Petition of Maria Gardener [Gardner].

[9] Notebook entry relating to a petition in favour of John Gardner, 15 October 1836, Home Office: Criminal Entry Books, The National Archives (UK), HO 13/70, in UK, Criminal Records,1780-1871, page 151, Ancestry.com, accessed 25 May 2024.

[10] Notebook entry for John Gardner, 8 April 1836, Correspondence and Warrants, 1836 Mar30-1836 Aug 23, Home Office: Criminal Entry Books, The National Archives (UK), HO13/69, p 3, Gale Primary Sources Database, accessed 25 May 2024; Prison register entry for JohnGardner (prisoner number 2175), 16 April 1836, Home Office: Convict Prison Hulks, Registers and Letter Books, The National Archives (UK), H09/4, in UK, Prison Hulk Registers and Letter Books, 1802-1849, Ancestry.com, accessed 5 May 2024.

[11] ‘Old Convict Times to Gold Digging Days’, Evening News (Sydney), 15 July 1891, 7.

[12] Sick list of the male convict ship John, 7 September 1836-18 February 1837, The NationalArchives (UK), ADM 101/37/8, page 4, in UK, Royal Navy Medical Journals, 1817-1856,Ancestry.com, accessed 23 May 2024.

[13] Sick list of the male convict ship John, page 6.

[14] Convict Indent for Joseph Bramble (No. 103) and Charles Brown (No. 177), John (4) [1837],Non-Annotated Printed Indentures, NSW State Archives, NRS 12188, Item 3/6398, Microfiche 731, pp. 17-18, in New South Wales, Australia, Convict Indents, 1788-1842, Ancestry.com, accessed 26 May 2024.

[15] Convict Indent for John Gardner (No. 190), John (4) [1837], pp. 21-22.

[16] Johr [John] Gardner, John (4) [1837], List of convicts, 1837, The National Archives (UK),HO 10/33, in New South Wales and Tasmania, Australia Convict Musters, 1806-1849, Ancestry.com, accessed 26 May 2024.

[17] Australian National University Archives, ‘Beginnings: 200 years of the Australian Agricultural Company’ [online exhibition], Australian National University Archives website,n.d., https://archives.anu.edu.au/exhibitions/200-years-australian-agricultural-company/beginnings#, accessed 8 June 2024.

[18] P. A. Pemberton, Pure Merinos and Others: The ‘Shipping Lists’ of the Australian Agricultural Company [web version], Australian National University Archives of Business andLabour, Canberra, 2011, p. 98, https://imagedepot.anu.edu.au/sis/archives/publications/pure_merinos_and_others_-pa_-pemberton.pdf, accessed 8 June 2024.

[19] Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House, ‘Order-in-Council endingtransportation of convicts 22 May 1840 (UK)’, Documenting a Democracy website, n.d., https://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item-sdid-76.html, accessed 8 June 2024.

[20] ‘Principal Superintendent of Convicts’ Office’, NSW Government Gazette, 1 July 1840, 636,; ‘List of runaways apprehended during the week’, NSW Government Gazette, 30 September 1840, 982.

[21] Entry for John Gardener [Gardner], received 28 January 1842, Newcastle Gaol Entrance Book, State Archives NSW, Item 2/2020, Roll 757, in New South Wales, Australia, Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818-1930, Ancestry.com, accessed 11 May 2024; Entry for John Gardener[Gardner], discharged 3 February 1842, Newcastle Gaol Discharge Book, State Archives NSW, Series 2329, Item 2/2018, Roll 138, in New South Wales, Australia, Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818-1930, Ancestry.com, accessed 11 May 2024.

[22] Certificate of Freedom for John Gardner, 22 September 1843, State Records Authority of NSW, Butts of Certificates of Freedom, NRS 12210, Archive Roll 1015, in New South Wales, Australia,Certificates of Freedom, 1810-1814, 1827-1867, Ancestry.com, accessed 26 May 2024.

[23] Entry for John Gardner, received 3 October 1843, Newcastle Gaol Entrance Book, State Archives NSW, Item 2/2020, Roll 757; Entry for John Gardenor [Gardner], admitted 3 October 1843,Newcastle Gaol Entrance and Description Book, State Archives NSW, Series 2374, Item 2/2005, Roll 136; Entry for John Gardner, admitted 5 October 1843, Newcastle Gaol Entrance and Description Book, State Archives NSW, Series 2374, Item 2/2005, Roll 136; Entry for John Gardner, Newcastle Gaol Description Book, State Archives NSW, Item 2/2016, Roll 759; Entry for John Gardner, discharged 18 March 1844, Newcastle Gaol Discharge Book, State Archives NSW, Series 2329, Item2/2018, Roll 138, in New South Wales, Australia, Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818-1930, Ancestry.com, accessed 11 May 2024; ‘Calendar for the ensuing Circuit Court’, Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, 9 March 1844, 2; ‘Maitland Circuit Court’, Australian(Sydney), 11 March 1844, 3.

[24] Entry for John Gardiner [Gardner], received 9 April 1844, Newcastle Gaol Entrance Book,State Archives NSW, Item 2/2020, Roll 757; Entry for John Gardner, admitted 9 April 1844, Newcastle Gaol Entrance and Description Book, State Archives NSW, Series 2374, Item 2/2005, Roll136; Entry for John Gardner, 1844, Newcastle Gaol Description Book, State Archives NSW, Item 2/2016, Roll 759; Entry for John Gardner, discharged 3 October 1844, Newcastle Gaol DischargeBook, State Archives NSW, Series 2329, Item 2/2018, Roll 138, in New South Wales, Australia,Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818-1930, Ancestry.com, accessed 11 May 2024.